Birding Around Albuquerque

Over the past few weeks I’ve had a chance to get out and bird a time or two. I mostly went out to see some rare sightings that have shown up around town. I missed several, but managed to see a couple to add to my life list.

I visited Valle de Oro a couple times. I had heard there were a number of warblers there. It’s always fun to go find warblers, though my neck complains by the end of the day LOL!

When I arrived at Valle de Oro I saw a pair of coyotes out hunting. One disappeared right away, but the other stayed out long enough to let me get a few good pics.

Coyote

As always, I saw several Western Meadowlarks out singing. I love their beautiful voice.

Western Meadowlark

I walked along the main drainage ditch hoping to see some good birds. A scrub jay announced his presence.

Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay

Then almost right away I heard a lot of birds singing. I just started taking pics of everything that moved. As you know, songbirds are small and fast!!! When I looked at the pics I was surprised to see a several birds I don’t see often. Mainly my nemesis, the Lazuli Bunting. Try my hardest, I can’t get a good pic of this bird.

Lazuli Bunting

Black-Throated Gray Warbler

Cedar Waxwing

I heard several Summer Tanagers singing. It’s amazing how a bright red bird can hide among green leaves. But they can just disappear! I only got a few pics and they weren’t very good. But I did see a Western Tanager female closer to me.

Western Tanager Female

I had been told where a Common Black Hawk’s nest was near the Valle de Oro. So I went on a 2-mile hike to find this beautiful bird. Once I was in the general location, I looked for the nest. I found it way up high in a cottonwood tree. There was no seeing if anything was in the nest. I waited around for a while and eventually heard the hawk calling from a distance. Then to my delight the bird flew in and landed near the nest. A lifer for me! At first I barely saw him as he was deep in the leaves.

Common Black Hawk

Eventually he moved to a better location for photos. This is a magnificent bird. From what I understand there are only about 250 breeding pairs in the US. They are easily disturbed by humans and are known to abandon nests if bothered too much. So after getting a few pics, I quietly left the area to let them raise their young undisturbed.

Common Black Hawk

On my way back I saw a flycatcher along the ditch. I believe it’s a Hammond’s Flycatcher.

Hammond’s Flycatcher

Then I heard another bird calling that I only rarely hear – a Gray Catbird. Always a treat to see and hear! I only managed one pic and that was from behind.

Gray Catbird

While hiking along he ditch, I enjoyed the wild irises blooming.

Wild irises

While hiking at Valle de Oro I came across this interesting insect. I tried looking it up, but I can’t figure out what it is.

Not sure what this cute guy is….

I had heard about a very rare sighting in the East Mountain area that I just had to go find. There was a Golden-Winged Warbler sighted and it was practically in my back yard. After much searching I was rewarded with a short view of this bird. I took several photos before he disappeared into the deep brush. I managed to get a few decent pics. Another lifer!

Golden-Winged Warbler

While hiking there I was treated to some beautiful wild apple blossoms.

Wild apple tree blossoms

I visited the Rio Grande Nature Center. I hadn’t been there in a while, so it was a treat to see it in the springtime. Right away I heard a Yellow-Breasted Chat singing. I managed to find it in a tree on the island in the pond. So it was quite a distance away.

Yellow-Breasted Chat

I also saw the resident roadrunners in the parking lot. Always fun to photograph!

Greater Roadrunner

While walking the paths, I heard some Summer Tanagers talking back and forth amongst each other. This time I had more success getting photos of the pair.

Summer Tanager male

Summer Tanager female

There were several Black-Chinned Hummingbirds visiting the feeders. Whenever there are several hummingbirds at a feeder, there’s always fights defending their food. For a tiny bird, they are fierce!

Black-Chinned Hummingbird

Uh oh! He sees another hummer coming for him!

Defending the feeder!

Here are some of the other birds I saw on my visit.

Canada Goose

Western-Wood Pewee

Lesser Goldfinch

Ash-Throated Flycatcher

The gardens were beginning to bloom. The bees were happily gathering pollen.

Poppies

Shooting stars

Giant black bee

I was entertained by a resident White-Winged Dove that has become very tame. The gardeners told me his name was Lonesome Larry. He was so tame, he would take see from your hand. He stayed so close to me, that I barely got photos because my zoom lens had a hard time focusing on such a close subject. 🙂

White-Winged Dove

Lonesome Larry

Such beautiful coloring

I’ve been keeping an eye on a Red-Tailed Hawk’s nest not far from my house. When I visited recently, I saw the eggs have finally hatched. When I first looked, I thought there was only one baby. But the mother flew off the nest and I saw two babies!

Red-Tailed Hawk with babies

It’s been great getting out birding. It was nice to see all the summer birds returning to Albuquerque.

A Few Goodies

Yesterday I had to drive almost to Grants to meet a client. It was a cold, dreary day. On my way home I decided to stop in at Piedras Marcadas Petroglyphs so Scarlett and I could stretch our legs.

There weren’t any birds about, but there was an adorable, curious squirrel.

Antelope Squirrel

I crept closer hoping to get a better pic.

And closer still….. He let me take several photos before diving behind the rocks.

Just too darn adorable!

There were some hot air balloons up while I was hiking. One of them was landing behind the mesa. I took this pic just before it disappeared.

After working most of the day today, I managed to take a couple hours to hike and bird before sundown. I wasn’t sure what I would see being so late in the day. But surprisingly I saw few nice goodies.

Over the last few days we’ve had some cold, snowy weather. A couple days ago while in town, I took a photo of the Sandia Mountains. I love it when they are covered in clouds and snow.

Stormy Sandia Mountains

Thankfully today was more sunny and warmer. I first stopped in at a small park in Albuquerque to find a Western Screech Owl that has been seen there snoozing in a tree. Considering 90% of the trees in the park were too small for an owl, it was pretty easy to find him.

Western Screech Owl

Snoozin’ the day away

I love seeing owls in the wild. It’s always a real treat. After taking a few pics, I moved so as not to disturb him or draw attention to him from the other folks playing in the little park.

I then headed over to Willow Creek. I hadn’t been there in a while so it sounded like fun to go see what was about. On my way in to the park, I spied this Western Bluebird hunting for dinner.

Western Bluebird

As I was taking photos, he saw something on the ground and I managed to get a few shots of him getting a grub.

yummy….

It was a good find, so he took off with it to enjoy at his leisure. Beautiful!

My favorite photo of the day

Along the trail I saw Lesser Goldfinches, White-Crowned Sparrows, House Finches and Spotted Towhees. All of these birds were too shy to have their photo taken. But there were a lot of American Robins about. They were much more cooperative.

American Robin

There’s one point on the trail that affords a great view of the Sandias. I took this pic there. You can see there’s still snow about half way up the mountain.

To my delight I spied a Red-Tailed Hawk that was looking for a meal. Such a beautiful bird! And look at those claws!

Just before leaving I saw a Say’s Phoebe looking for dinner.

Say’s Phoebe

He too found something to eat and quickly took off with it.

That’s about it for my short afternoon walks. But any time hiking, birding and doing photography is a time well spent.

Blood Moon and Birds

Well…it just doesn’t get any better than that!

On January 31 there was a lunar event that hasn’t happened in 150 years in the United States: A Blue Moon, Super Moon, Blood Moon Eclipse. What does that mean? A Blue Moon is a second full moon in the same month. A Super Moon is when the moon’s orbit is closest to the earth making the moon appear 14% larger and 30% brighter. And a Blood Moon Eclipse is when the moon moves directly behind the Earth’s shadow where it cannot receive any light from the sun causing it to appear red in our atmosphere.

Of course, seeing as I wouldn’t be around for the next one unless I lived to be 203 years old, I just had to photograph this event. I got up a 4 am to drive into town to a predetermined location. I was fortunate that our local camera club had scouted out a great area that gave an elevated vantage of the city below. When I arrived, I saw the temperature was 27 degrees. Brrrrr! It was going to be a cold photo shoot!

As I hiked to the earthen dam at the northeast end of Albuquerque, I could see the eclipse had already begun. At the time the moon was still white but was starting to show a hint of red. I quickly set up my camera gear and started shooting.

Moon over Albuquerque

The eclipse happened fast. Just a few shots later, the moon was becoming mostly red.

Eclipse well underway

Then it finally happened! It was a Blood Moon. I zoomed as far in as I could and it was a beautiful sight!

Blood Moon

The full eclipse was to be a 6:30 am. My last shot was around 6:15. The sun was rising and the sky had really started to lighten. I quickly changed lenses and took a picture of the Blood Moon hanging over Albuquerque. As you can see, I was definitely shooting in the “blue hour” by this time. But I thought the photo was so beautiful.

Blood Moon over Albuquerque

After that last shot, the sky just became too light and the moon had dipped into the hazy horizon above the city. So I packed up my gear and hoofed it back to my car.

I figured since I was already in town and it was dawn, I should take the opportunity to go birding. Logical train of thought right??? 🙂

I headed over to Alameda Open Space to see what might be around at the pond and along the river. I had heard a Mew Gull has been sighted among the Ring-Billed Gull flock. That would be a lifer for me if I could find it.

I started systematically taking photos of the flock as they rested on the sandbar in the Rio Grande. I figured I could look through photos later to see if I captured the Mew Gull.

Ring-Billed Gulls with rare visitor California Gull in the middle

I had snapped a few photos working my way down the line, when all of a sudden they all erupted into flight. Startled me good!

Ring-Billed Gulls

I had wondered what frightened them. I was thinking maybe a coyote had tried to sneak up on them or something. No sign of any ground attack, I looked up for a possible aerial attack. And right above me was a Bald Eagle! Beautiful! We get them here every winter, but you just don’t see them that often.

You can see the size difference of the gull to the Bald Eagle

Look at that wingspan!!

He soon caught a thermal and soared higher and higher until eventually he was gone. Since now the gulls were all stirred up, I figured my chance to see the Mew Gull were pretty much nil. So I started hiking along the river to see what other goodies might be about. Here’s some pics of my finds.

Common Merganser female

There are 3 Black-Crowned Night Herons in the trees

Great Blue Heron

Common Mergansers – 2 males and 1 female

Black Phoebe

Wood Duck pair

Mallards with a Killdeer

Western Bluebird – so beautiful!

We came across a giant beach along the river and Scarlett decided it was a great place to run and play in the water. Even though that water had to be freezing she wanted to play. I had fun capturing some photos of her while she played. Goofy dog!

Scarlett having fun in the water

So much fun to run in the shallow water

She likes to bite at the water as she plays

My beautiful girl

Isn’t that a look of pure joy! LOL!

After a couple hours of hiking, we headed back to the car. I stopped briefly at the bridge crossing the bar ditch next to the parking lot. There’s usually some good small birds in the area. I heard a constant buzzing noise. It took me a minute to narrow down where it was coming from, but eventually I fount its source. A Marsh Wren – in plain sight! Now many of you know those Marsh Wrens can be a real challenge to photograph as they mostly live deep in cattails. So I was thrilled to be able to watch one work along the edge of the water for a little while. He was deep in shadows and at a little distance, so it was a challenge getting a good image. But I was pleased with what I got.

Marsh Wren

Hmmmm…anything good under water?

I had a little time left before I needed to head home and get back to work. So I stopped in at the Embudito Trail parking lot. There’s been sighted a Golden-Crowned Sparrow among the White-Crowned Sparrows feeding at a feeder next to the parking lot.

When I arrived I saw a Cactus Wren singing in a tree. I can never resist photographing these beautiful birds. And their song is the epitome of desert birdsong. I think it’s the most used birdsong in commercials and movies depicting the southwest.

Cactus Wren

I then saw a bunch of White-Crowned Sparrows fly in to the bushes next to the feeder. I was hopeful the Golden-Crowned Sparrow was among them.

White-Crowned Sparrow

I searched and searched and finally! there he was! By this time the sun was bright and trying to get a good pic was a challenge. But finally I managed one that showed his beautiful gold crown even though it’s muted in his winter plumage. A lifer for me!

Golden-Crowned Sparrow

Now it was time to go home and take a nap!!! (work could wait LOL!)

Mallard feather on the frozen beach of the Rio Grande

Christmas Birding

The weather here in New Mexico has been very mild for wintertime. So I took advantage of the nice day and went birding yesterday. I haven’t had much chance to bird lately, so it was a real treat to have a whole day to visit several places and get some fun bird sightings.

My first stop was to visit the Rio Grande Nature Center for their Saturday morning bird walk. When you go on their guided tours, you get taken into places of the park you normally can’t visit. So it’s always a treat to go behind the scenes.

The early morning temperatures were in the mid 20s, so it was definitely a cold start. The ducks didn’t seem very happy about standing on the ice instead of swimming in the water.

Mallards and Wood Ducks

A Black-Crowned Night Heron was hiding in the bushes nearby.

Black-Crowned Night Heron

On the main pond there were a few ducks enjoying the area that hadn’t frozen over. It was a treat to see a Hooded Merganser male. Even though they are common in our area during the winter, you just don’t see them that often.

Hooded Merganser

Along with the Hooded Merganser there were a few other visitors.

Ruddy Ducks in the Foreground and a Canvasback female in the back

American Coot on the left and a Pied-Billed Grebe on the right

Pied-Billed Grebe

Mallard

Canada Geese

We saw a few other birds along our walk, but for the most part it was quiet.

A variety of blackbirds

Sandhill Crane

Western Bluebird

After the guided tour, I walked around the park a little more to see what might be visiting the feeders. There was a nice variety of birds enjoying the free meal.

Spotted Towhee

Red-Winged Blackbird female

White-Crowned Sparrow

Downy Woodpecker

Bewick’s Wren

White-Throated Sparrow

Black-Capped Chickadee

I walked down to the Rio Grande to see what might be hanging out at the river. Over the past few years Albuquerque has had a flock of Ring-Billed Seagulls hanging out on the sand bars of the Rio Grande near Alameda Street. This year those sand bars got flooded over by the river. I had wondered where the seagulls had moved to since their usual spot was too deep for them. I was excited to see they had found a new area behind the nature center. I scanned the flock to see if there were any other breeds visiting the flock, but I didn’t see any this time.

Ring-Billed Gulls

While photographing the flock, a fly fisherman came down to fish the area. I managed to get a decent pic of him casting his line. It’s hard to see, but I still liked the photo.

Before leaving the nature center, I was lucky enough to see 3 Greater Roadrunners around the parking area. They are so used to people, that I swear they pose for the camera. Of course, I took about 500 pics of just the roadrunners. 🙂

Greater Roadrunner

Posing so nicely for me

Got a peek of those gorgeous purple feathers of the crest

From there I visited Los Poblanos Open Space. I had hoped to see the Western Screech Owls occupying the nesting boxes. But sadly none of them poked their heads out while I was there. But I found a few other treasures while hiking around the fields.

Say’s Phoebe

Western Meadowlark

Black Phoebe that managed to find a bug in the cold weather

Song Sparrow

A leucistic American Goldfinch

My favorite sightings of that visit was seeing both a male and female American Kestral. Such beautiful, small birds of prey.

American Kestral male

American Kestral female

My third stop was to find the American Dipper that has been spotted in the drainage ditch along the Rio Grande. Though they are a common bird in our state, they are rarely seen in Albuquerque. They prefer fast flowing streams where they can dip and dive in the rapids looking for food. The Rio Grande in the Albuquerque area is mostly a wide, placid river. But there are a few spots in the year-round flowing drainage ditches that have man-made rapids coming out of culverts.

After walking a little ways along the ditch, I was thrilled to see the dipper bobbing along the water’s edge. He didn’t seem concerned to have an audience. It was a real treat watching him feeding in and around the water’s edge. Needless to say, I took another 500 photos of this bird. LOL!

American Dipper

American Dipper swimming

There were a few other visitors there along the ditch that I enjoyed watching as well.

Black Phoebe

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

Overall, I had a great day going from one birding spot to another. Scarlett had a great time walking all the trails with me.

A lovely old cottonwood tree

Summer Birds and Other Goodies

With my several trips this year and busy work, I haven’t had time to blog as often as I would have liked to. So I thought I would combine several sightings over the summer into one post. Now that fall is officially here, many of these birds are gone or will be gone soon.

During the summer I went on several day hikes within a couple hours of Albuquerque. Partly to see something new in scenery and partly to see some birds I don’t normally see around home.

One hike that was new for me was the Cave Creek hike in the Pecos Wilderness. It’s about a 5-mile round trip hike to some caves that were created by water eroding through limestone. It was a beautiful hike in thick forest along a creek. Of course, Scarlett enjoyed the water immensely!

So much fun at the water crossings!

Lovely stream to hike along.

The caves were very interesting. There were several that were big enough to walk inside of. I didn’t go very far in as it got dark quickly and I wasn’t sure how deep the water got. But lots of fun to explore. Scarlett was curious about the caves as well.

Unique caves created by water erosion.

Scarlett exploring a smaller cave.

On this hike I saw a flock of Dusky Grouse. This is pretty much the only grouse specie New Mexico has. I’ve only seen this bird a few times of the past 20 years and never very close. But I was lucky on this hike. When I startled them, they flew into a nearby pine and sat very still – which was perfect for a great photo.

Dusky Grouse

Another day I ventured to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains next to Santa Fe. It was a very cloudy day and the birds were few, but I managed to get a few nice sightings. A favorite – Green Tailed Towhee – came close to check me out so I was able to see his colors nicely.

Green Tailed Towhee

Williamson’s Sapsucker – Juvenile

Dark-Eyed Junco

One of the highlights of this hike was seeing lots of mushrooms. I’ve seen photos of the red and white polka dot mushrooms, but never have seen one in person. It was a real treat seeing and photographing them. 🙂

Poisonous mushroom – but so pretty!

Aspen Vista is a beautiful hike at about 8,000 feet above sea level. As you know Scarlett loves water. But she also loves culverts. She’s always looking inside them to see what might be hiding. On this hike, she found a culvert that was big enough to run through and it had water flowing through it. Bonus!

Scarlett having a blast!

I walked along the Rio Grande several times. Most of the colorful summer birds love the Bosque. It’s so much fun looking for and photographing these beauties!

Blue Grosbeak

Summer Tanager

Neotropic Cormorant

Downy Woodpecker

Great Blue Heron

Say’s Phoebe

Broad-Tailed Hummingbird enjoying the summer mimosa blooms!

House Sparrow

House Finch – partial orange morph

Orange-Crowned Warbler

One day while hiking along the river, I came across a Cooper’s Hawk enjoying breakfast. You could tell it had caught a songbird by the foot hanging out of it’s beak. Poor thing….

Songbird for breakfast anyone???

While reviewing my photos, I realized I had captured a lifer bird on one of my outings along the river. I love it when that happens! In this case, I had mistaken it for a Summer Tanager. But when I reviewed the photo more closely, I realized it was a Hepatic Tanager. Yay!!!

Hepatic Tanager

Of course, Scarlett always enjoys a visit to the river!

Look at that big grin on Scarlett’s face!

One day I took a drive out to Stanley. I hadn’t been there for quite some time. I saw a lot of the usual residents there. I never tire seeing a Western Meadowlark or the many hawks that live there. 🙂

Cliff Swallow

Red-Tailed Hawk (juvenile) – I love the coloring of this particular bird

Western Meadowlark

Around home I’ve had several new birds visit my yard this summer. It’s so exciting to see something new show up. I hope they find me again next year! Some were easy to photograph, while others were very elusive. The birds I was unable to photograph but saw were Yellow-Headed Blackbird, Brown-Headed Blackbird, Northern Saw-Whet Owl, and Green-Tailed Towhee.

Pygmy Nuthatch

Curve-Billed Thrasher

I love their orange eyes.

Along with the new birds I’ve seen this year, I’ve had plenty of the resident birds stopping by the feeders and bird baths.

Western Bluebird

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

A very shy Ladderback Woodpecker (hence the blurry photo)

Wilson’s Warbler – coming to enjoy my bird bath

Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay

Hairy Woodpecker

Mountain Chickadee

Holding down a sunflower seed to extract its goodness.

Bushtit

Lesser Goldfinch

Black-Headed Grosbeak

Juniper Titmouse

Virginia’s Warbler

Rufous Hummingbird

Bewick’s Wren

This summer New Mexico saw several forest fires in the Jemez Mountains. Because of this, a lot of the bird life has migrated south to new habitats. This summer we saw a large number of Lewis’s Woodpeckers in the greater Albuquerque area. We normally don’t see them here, so it was a real treat to see one only a couple miles from my house. It seemed to prefer this telephone pole as it was sighted there often. And it didn’t like the squirrel using its pole.

Lewis’s Woodpecker

Get off my pole!!!

I drove down to the Monzano Mountains a couple weeks ago hoping to see the fall colors starting in 4th of July Canyon. Though the colors still haven’t begun, I did get to see several birds.

Steller’s Jay – so beautiful!

Red-Tailed Hawks

I saw a Brown Creeper – always a delight. They are very difficult to see against the bark and they move quickly.

Brown Creeper

Plus I got a lifer! A Golden-Crowned Kinglet. I’ve been looking for this bird for several years and just happened upon it on this trail. Yay! This guy was way up in the canopy shadows and moving so fast!

Golden-Crowned Kinglet

Among the many bird sightings I had over the summer, I came across some other interesting things. I thought you might enjoy seeing them. 🙂

Cool bee on a beautiful summer sunflower

Ahhhhhhhh……

Southwestern Fence Lizard

Hoary Comma

Aphrodite Fritillary

Police Car Moth

Western Tailed-Blue

I love the colors on this dragonfly

This beetle “hisses” when you touch it. A unique defense!

Great Plains Skink (juvenile). This guy was so cool!!! I love the markings on the face. This skink will turn plain brown all over as an adult.

Painted Lady

Can you see the walking stick expertly hiding

Marine Blue

Common Side-Blotched Lizard

Jackrabbit

Wonderful Spring Birding with a New Lifer Sighting

First off, let me just say, I LOVE my new camera! I’m definitely still in the learning phase, but it’s performance is superior to my old setup. It’s a joy to use, and I’m very happy with my images.

Not too long ago, we had a spring storm blow through and it dumped 12 inches of snow at my house. The birds were not very happy about this event, and neither were my plants.

Bleeding Hearts

A Cooper’s Hawk was hanging out at my bird feeder hoping for a meal.

Cooper’s Hawk

The hummingbirds were happy I had feeders out for them.

Broad-Tailed Hummingbird

I think the only one happy with the snow was Scarlett 🙂

My sweet Miss Scarlett

Thankfully the snow melted the very next day, and the temperatures returned to the mid to high 70s right away. I got to go out hiking several times this week. I visited Tingley Beach a couple days after the spring storm. The Rio Grande was raging and flooded most of the bosque trails. But it was worth trudging through it to see some new spring birds.

Ash-Throated Flycatcher

Green Heron

Baby Mallard

Summer Tanager

I have lived in the Albuquerque area for over 20 years. And during that time, I have never visited Sandia Lakes or Shady Lakes (they are next door to each other). So one day I decided to check out the lakes.

Sandia Lakes was very nice. Beautiful lawns and cottonwood trees and three separate lakes.

Sandia Lakes with the Sandia Mountains in the background

The first bird I saw was a Lark Sparrow (first one I’ve seen this year). He was singing way up high in a tree. Then I saw several Canada Geese with their babies.

Canada Geese

While watching the geese, I saw something that looked different. I quickly realized it was a Western Grebe. We don’t see them often in our area, so it was a real treat.

Western Grebe

I saw a pair of Say’s Phoebes busily hunting for bugs. I soon saw why they were so frantic to find bugs. They had three babies squeezed into a tiny nest.

Say’s Phoebes

I saw lots of Black Phoebes as well. They are such beautiful birds

Black Phoebe

While walking around the lake, an Osprey flew overhead. I thought to myself that he might be part of a nesting pair. This was confirmed recently by my friend Joe. I’m definitely going to have to check out their nesting progress.

Osprey

I came across a pair of Black-Capped Chickadees that were acting very agitated. I never did figure out what they were so upset about.

Black-Capped Chickadee

As I was walking through the grass between lakes, I saw a Killdeer doing its “I’m injured, follow me” routine. So I knew there must be a baby nearby. It was acting pretty desperate, so I thought it must be very close.

Killdeer trying to lure me away from its baby

When I looked down, I realized it was only a foot away. I almost stepped on it! Yikes! It never did move. I took a quick pic and then quickly moved away. Soon I heard the baby calling for its parents. It was nice to see them all reunite and be assured all was fine.

baby Killdeer

I then headed over to Shady Lakes. What a beautiful place! It has several ponds all covered in beautiful lily pads and lined with irises. The ponds are stocked with different varieties of fish. But I was there for the birds.

Shady Lakes

As soon as I stepped out of the car, I saw a Black-Crowned Night Heron sitting beautifully on an old log. I then realized there were several of them gathered there. Fabulous! They are used to people so they let me get pretty close.

Black-Crowned Night Heron

I walked around the ponds and admired all the beautiful blooming lilies and irises.

I noticed a moth feeding among the irises. These moths often get called hummingbirds by people when they don’t look too closely.

White-Lined Sphinx Moth

The turtles were enjoying those big lily pads!

My last hike was up to the Cienega picnic area. The forest service blocks the road for cars until mid-May. So you have to hike along the road to get to the upper picnic area. My goal was to try and find the Northern Pygmy Owl that has been seen nesting there. Now I have made this hike several times both last spring and this spring with no luck seeing that owl. Well, this time I was successful! This is a lifer bird for me!

He was calling repeatedly on a lower branch in the aspen tree where he’s been seen nesting. All the songbirds in the area were very agitated and were trying to scare him away. It was a wonderful sighting!

For those of you not familiar with this owl. He’s very small, only 6 inches from its head to the end of its tail. So you can see why he’s so difficult to find.

Northern Pygmy Owl

I decided to hike over to Bill Spring since I was in the area. A Hermit Thrush was enjoying a bath. And a baby was in a tree nearby.

Hermit Thrush

A Western Tanager (my first of the year), briefly showed himself deep in the trees near the spring.

Western Tanager

I hadn’t been at the spring long when a Cooper’s Hawk flew in chasing a chickadee. After that, the birds were scarce. So I started hiking back to my car. I saw lots of Black-Headed Grosbeak singing and squabbling in the trees. I’m guessing they were vying for the attention of the females.

Black-Headed Grosbeak

I’m thrilled spring is here. I’m looking forward to getting out again and seeing what other beautiful spring birds have arrived. 🙂

2-Year Anniversary and 11-Mile Hike

Today is the 2nd anniversary of my blog. I can’t believe I’ve been posting my adventures for 2 years! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my birding outings and other adventures.

Scarlett and I have been walking a lot lately. And sometimes my fiends join us. It’s been a lot of fun getting out there and seeing the bosque start to wake up for spring.

My friend Joe Schelling has told me about a couple of owl nests. So I went to find them over the past couple of weeks. One is a Great Horned Owl nest. The male was difficult to find, but I did manage to locate him after much searching. He was hiding very well in a pine tree. The female in the nest is very easy to see. I’m looking forward to seeing babies soon.

Great Horned Owl

Can you see the owl among the branches?

The other owl nest is a Western Screech Owl. He’s located near the duck ponds at Tingley Beach. Which brings me to my 11-mile hike.

For awhile now, I’ve wanted to hike the trail along the Rio Grande from Tingley Beach to Alameda Open Space. I knew it was going to be a long hike and I needed a full day to do it. The weather has gotten so nice lately, that I decided I was ready to attempt this long hike. My plan was to start at Tingley Beach and head north. Once I got to Alameda, I was going to call a cab to take me back to my car.

So a couple of days ago, Scarlett and I headed out. It was a glorious spring day. At the parking lot, I was greeted by loads of beautiful daffodils blooming. So cheerful. A wonderful way to start a day.

I started at the duck ponds. I met up with a couple birder friends there and we enjoyed watching a very cooperative Neotropic Cormorant. He was enjoying the beautiful morning as well.

Neotropic Cormorant

Love their teal-colored eyes

A Pied-Billed Grebe was also enjoying the morning. As well as a gorgeous male Wood Duck.

Pied-Billed Grebe

Wood Duck enjoying a good grooming

I’ve seen a particular coloring of duck over the past year. For the longest time, I thought it was a mallard hybrid of some sort. But recently I stumbled across a photo of this same duck on the internet. Come to find out, it’s a Swedish Blue Duck. Evidently it’s a domesticated duck in Sweden and over the past few years has spread among the states. I’ve seen this duck in Utah, Nevada and now New Mexico.

Swedish Blue Duck behind a Mallard female

There were lots of turtles out sunning themselves as well. While taking photos, I guess I never realized there were so many varieties of turtles in the ponds.

I then left the ponds and went in search of that Western Screech Owl. He was looking out of his hole with slitted eyes. I guess that bright morning sun wasn’t so pleasant to him. But I was thrilled to get a cool shot of that owl looking out of the trunk of a cottonwood tree.

Western Screech Owl

I made my way along the bosque. I saw several porcupines up in the trees. Soon the leaves will make it much more difficult to see them.

Porcupine

Not far past the owl’s nest, I came across a pair of nesting Cooper’s Hawks. The female was way down low in the nest and was difficult to see. But the male was calling from a branch making himself very visible. I was pleased to get such a nice photo of him.

Cooper’s Hawk

During my hike, I saw a total of four Cooper’s Hawks. The others were not nearly as cooperative for photos.

Further along the trail, I heard this guy making odd noises. As I came closer, I saw him in the water. At first I thought he needed help, but as I got closer I realized he was doing some kind of training. Not sure what, but I guess he knew what he was doing. LOL!

Hmmmmmm……

Just upstream of this guy, I saw a Canada Goose wondering about that guy as well!

Canada Goose

I happened upon a pair of Lesser Goldfinches trying to glean a few more seeds from last season’s sunflowers.

Lesser Goldfinch – male

Lesser Goldfinch – female

At one point I heard a bunch of Gambel’s Quail. I only managed to see this one male as he peeked out from behind some cacti.

Gambel’s Quail

At one point, Scarlett stopped and was staring into the dense brush. All of a sudden, I saw a coyote run out from behind a bush. I managed to get a quick pic before he disappeared from view.

Coyote

Flying overhead I saw a nice Red-Tailed Hawk. He was enjoying the thermals.

Red-Tailed Hawk

I came across a few crows feeding on the ground. They actually let me get pretty close. Which was nice, because black birds are so difficult to get a good photo of .

American Crow

I saw a few other birds along my hike.

Say’s Phoebe

White-Crowned Sparrows

Downy Woodpecker

Spotted Towhee

Five hours and 11-miles later I arrived at Alameda Open Space parking lot. Whew!!! That was a long walk. Scarlett and I were pooped! But we had a great time. It was so much fun, I think I will do it again soon!

A Lot of Bad Bird Photos

I’ve been out walking as often as I can. Work has been hectic lately so I haven’t had a lot of time for long walks. But I’ve managed to get out here and there and walk and photograph birds.

The skies have been overcast quite a bit which has caused low light conditions for photography. Added to the frustrating photography conditions, the birds have insisted on staying in the shadows and diving for cover every chance they get. Or they were always at the far range of my lens. It was a challenging week trying to get a decent photo of a bird. I’m so ready for summer!

So here’s a collection of all the bad bird photos I’ve gotten lately.

White-Crowned Sparrow

Crissal Thrasher

Red-Tailed Hawk

Common Merganser

Western Bluebird

Hermit Thrush

American Robin

Northern Shoveler

Black-Capped Chickadee

Bewick’s Wren

Sandhill Cranes

Black Phoebe

Dark-Eyed Junco

White-Breasted Nuthatch

Lesser Goldfinch

Song Sparrow

Northern Flicker – it snowed at my house but he didn’t seem to mind. He groomed on this perch for some time.

House Finches

Spotted Towhee

Kildeer

Northern Harrier

American Kestral

Say’s Phoebe

My most common view of birds lately…..

Eastern Bluebird

Great Blue Heron

This scarecrow isn’t scaring these guinea fowl much.

I did manage to get a few decent photos. These few stood out of the bunch.

Rock Wren

Ring-Necked Duck – male

Ring-Necked Duck – female

Belted Kingfisher

Great Blue Heron – he flew fairly low right over my head. I loved it!

The best photo of the bunch was of this Black Phoebe. It let me get very close and the sun actually shone weakly helping the shot.

Black Phoebe

I saw some nice wildlife on the trail as well.

Coyote

Red-Eared Turtle

Of course, Scarlett wasn’t concerned that photography conditions weren’t ideal. She always makes the best of a walk.

Scarlett loves to jump over logs. 🙂

Hike Before the Storm

So I had heard that Thursday night we were supposed to have this terrible cold front blow through with blizzard conditions and road closures.

So Scarlett and I headed out to go on a long hike and enjoy the decent weather before we got snowed in.

We hiked a new trail in the Bosque along the Rio Grande at the northern end of Corrales. Not any birds of any note, but the scenery was beautiful. The Sandia Mountains were looking dark and moody.

Here’s Miss Scarlett posing for me with the gloomy mountains in the distance.

I came across this old ladder in a tree. I immediately thought of my fellow blogger Donna in TorC. She would have a witty title to go with the photo.

Hmmmmm….the best I could come up with was “fun pastimes” 🙂

Needless to say, but the huge storm was a bust. So lucky for me and Scarlett we will get to hit the trails again this weekend!

Greedy Grebe

While hiking around the duck ponds at Tingley Beach, I noticed a little Pied-Billed Grebe splashing around. When I zoomed in for a closer look, I saw him with a HUGE fish!

Pied-Billed Grebe

Look at the size of that fish!

I watched this little grebe try and try and try to swallow that fish.

At one point he dropped it.

But he quickly retrieved it. I left him carrying his huge fish around. I can’t imagine he ever swallowed it, but who knows!

Greedy Grebe!

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New Mexico Birder

Birding & Photography in New Mexico & the Southwest

Category Archives: Rio Grande

Birding Around Albuquerque

A Few Goodies

Blood Moon and Birds

Christmas Birding

Summer Birds and Other Goodies

Wonderful Spring Birding with a New Lifer Sighting

2-Year Anniversary and 11-Mile Hike

A Lot of Bad Bird Photos

Hike Before the Storm

Greedy Grebe